October 19, 2023 3:40 a.m.

In the KQEN Business Spotlight:

The Roseburg Rite Aid store on Northwest Garden Valley Boulevard is remaining open, with only one Rite Aid location in Oregon slated for closure, following the company’s filing for bankruptcy protection on Sunday. The location being shuttered is in southeast Portland.

In a rapid series of moves, the company has announced that it reached an agreement in principle with key creditors on the terms of a financial restructuring plan. A new Chief Executive Officer has been chosen. Jeffery S. Stein will also serve as Rite Aid’s Chief Restructuring Officer and will be a member of the company’s board of directors. Tuesday the company announced it had interim approval to access up to $3.45 billion in debtor-in-possession financing from some its lenders.

Financial publications indicate the company has posted annual losses for several years and expects a net loss of as much as $680 million in the current fiscal year, which will end next spring. Like its rivals, the company is also facing lawsuits related to opioid prescriptions. Rite Aid has said it intends to close certain underperforming stores as the process evolves.

1,932 Rite Aid stores were acquired by competitor Walgreens in 2018 in a reported $4.4 billion financial deal.

Locally, there were two Rite Aid stores for decades, until the downtown location on Southeast Stephens Street closed in June. That building remains vacant, as does the prior Rite Aid building just two blocks away.

Roseburg still has two Walgreens stores, which were constructed in 2007 and 2010. A company official told News Radio 93-9 FM and 1240 KQEN that there is no change to their status.